NAA Digital Edge Blog

Welcome to the Digital Edge Blog! The Digital Edge Blog focuses on developments, trends, best practices and more in newspaper digital media. The blog launched in 2006 (archives before August 2008 are here). We look forward to reading your comments and contributions to the Digital Edge Blog. Questions? E-mail Beth Lawton at beth.lawton@naa.org.

A growing number of newspapers are embracing the live video shot for the Web (see articles about this in NAA's growth & development guide "Zooming In on Online Video") using Qik, broadband connections and a variety of other methods from the field. Now, a television station in Florida has figured out how to use Skype for live shots.

Reporter Janie Porter from Ft. Lauderdale station WTSP did this last week for a college football championship story.

Here's how Poynter's Al Thompkins explained the process:

Porter set up her own camera, opened her laptop, connected the camera to her computer, slipped a wireless connection card into her laptop, called up Skype and used her Blackberry to establish IFB (the device TV folks wear in their ears to hear the off-air signal). It all looked just great on air.

This type of reporting marks a new day. It is more than backpack journalism or one-woman-band reporting; it is soup to nuts, live reporting without a live truck or a signal that looks like a Max Headroom video. Obviously, it is also a potential cost-saving way to use fewer people and to send in live reports without using expensive trucks.

See the live shot and read an interview with Porter here.

Note: Comments on the blog Lost Remote show a number of other television stations are experimenting in this area not just for the Web, but for television as well.

New York Times Launches 1 in 8 Million, New API

Mildly reminiscent of Washingtonpost.com's OnBeing, NYTimes.com launched 1 in 8 Million, a video feature focusing on individuals living in New York City through a narrated photo gallery. The newspaper will be adding one story per week to its collection.

In addition, the newspaper Web site launched its instant op-ed feature called Room for Debate. As NYTimes.com describes it, "The Times invites knowledgeable outsiders to discuss major news events and other hot topics. The aim is to hear a variety of voices - well-known, up-and-coming or unexpected - on a range of issues. Discussions include opinion, analysis, context - sometimes all three. Contributors may debate one another, or simply share what they know and move on."

The Times' latest API release, the Congress API focuses on congressional votes. CNet's News.com reported, "The Congress API will enable developers to keep close eye on their elected representatives with data on specific congressional roll call votes and members' most recent positions on roll call votes. The API also provides lists of House and Senate members in specific years, as well as biographical and role information about specific members."

Las Vegas Sun's Thirst in the Mojave

Zach Wise's Thirst in the Mojave project focuses on the "Web" part of Web video.

The 24-minute video feature on the desert includes geocoded shots (so every piece of video is mapped), bios of speakers that appear on the lower-third of the screen and "more info" boxes that automatically pop-up as the video plays. (The video is broken up into 3 - 6 minute clips.) The project also includes an interactive map of water usage in and around Las Vegas.

Wise, on his Digital Art blog, noted that he completed the project before he left the newspaper this fall, but the project just launched early this year. On the blog, Wise explains how he put the project together.

Wise is now a multimedia producer for The New York Times.

Response to Carr's Call for an iTunes for News

Yesterday in Slate, Jack Shafer offered a response to NYT columnist David Carr's call for an iTunes for newspapers. Carr's column is here, and Shafer's response is here. Excerpts are below:

Carr:

By coming up with an easy user interface and obtaining the cooperation of a broad swath of music companies, [Apple's Steve] Jobs helped pull the business off the brink. He has been accused of running roughshod over the music labels, which are a fraction of their former size. But they are still in business. Those of us who are in the newspaper business could not be blamed for hoping that someone like him comes along and ruins our business as well by pulling the same trick: convincing the millions of interested readers who get their news every day free on newspapers sites that it's time to pay up.

Shafer:

Actually, a flawed iTunes for news already exists: It delivers content through Amazon's Kindle. ... One of the Kindle's many problems is that it's a standalone device. ... How would an iTunes for news market its products? Publishers could sell their editions directly to readers or license them to aggregators, much as the music labels license their tunes to iTunes and Amazon. The aggregators could bundle publications, giving you a financial incentive to subscribe to, say, the Times, the Washington Post, and the Wall Street Journal all at once. The subject of a whole other column would be how to maximize this new platform-let's call it News Box-for advertisers.

USA Today Launches iPhone, Kindle Versions

USA Today is one of the latest newspapers available on the Amazon Kindle for $11.99 per month. The newspaper joins more than 20 others that are available on the e-reader.  Separately, USA Today launched a new version for the Apple iPhone to positive reviews.

mediaXchange

This morning, the Newspaper Association of America's conference planning committee sent out an e-mail with good news: NAA negotiated to lower hotel room rates, plus a list of great reasons to attend the conference. The early bird rate is expiring Feb. 6, so please look for an e-mail that says "NAA's mediaXchange January e-Newsletter" in the subject line. If you didn't get it, just ask me and I'll forward it to you.

Update Wednesday 10:40 a.m.

Making Web Sites 'Easy to Use' - PRESSTIME magazine's Kate Davidson sat in on the Media Management Center's Webinar about its recent report on making news Web sites "easy to use."

A few more headlines:

@BreakingNewsOn Launches New Site as Public News Wire Service, Continues Twitter Outreach (The Editors Weblog)

10 Things Every Journalist Should Know (Journalism.co.uk)

About Beth Lawton